The Siberian Husky is a very distinctive looking dog, with their thousand yard stare, thick, heavy coats, pointed ears and alert posture.

They are certainly one of the dog breeds that appear very similar physically to the wolf, and along with other dogs that contain Husky breeding (Such as the Northern Inuit Dog) they are commonly used to portray the role of wolves in films and on TV shows. Many people who are not familiar with dogs at all often assume that Huskies actually are wolves, or that they at least have a very recent history of cross breeding with wolves, and it is easy to see why!

Their isolation from other dog types that they might potentially have crossed with also meant that breeds such as the Siberian Husky remain today in their present form much more similar to their ancestors than other breeds do, and so, remain closer to the ultimate original canine ancestor: the wolf.

Regardless of what part of the world you look at the local wolf population and native dog population, any given dog breed remains genetically more similar to literally any other dog breed than they do to the wolf. Up until some very modern research, it was assumed that all dog breeds descended from wolves, but it is now thought possible that rather than having descended from wolves per se, wolves and dogs share another common ancestor, from which they both evolved. This common ancestor is unknown and now extinct, but it is thought that the main key divergence between the wolf and the dog is the presence of one particular gene, which allows dogs to digest starch, something that wolves are unable to do. (Source)

Responses to "How Closely Related Are The Siberian Husky And The Wolf?"

Wonderful videos. Fascinating animals the wolves and the huskies. They are so much alike it is hard to distinguish them apart unless you really know what to look for. How closely related are they, well they are kissing cousins, if you ask me. :)